New York City gets federal funding for electric school buses and trucks

New York City has received 77 million dollars in federal grants to help electrify the city's school buses. Part of the money will also be used to open a charging depot for electric trucks.

A total of 61.1 million dollars comes from the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean School Bus Grant Programme. It will be used to purchase 180 electric school buses, quadrupling the current number in the Big Apple.

The state of New York mandates that all school buses on the road must be zero-emission by 2035. From 2027, all new school buses purchased must be ZEVs. The state has announced several funding rounds for school districts and operators to finance the new EVs and corresponding charging infrastructure. The city also received 1.5 million dollars from the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation’s Ride and Drive Electric Programme “to support planning and coordination efforts to electrify New York City’s electric school bus fleet.”

But NYC is not only electrifying its school buses. The city also received 15 million dollars from the US Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Grant Program. That money will “help build a groundbreaking, freight-focused electric truck and vehicle charging depot at the Hunts Point Food Distribution Center, the busiest heavy trucking destination in New York state.” The latter is located in the Bronx.

There is no information on the number of charging points or their capacity. The press release simply states that the charging depot can “charge over 7,000 vehicles each year.”

“I have always said that I am a five-borough mayor, and with this funding, we are building an even brighter future for the Bronx and our entire city,” said Mayor Adams. “These grants will help us put more electric school buses on our streets, turn one of the world’s largest food distribution centres into one of the world’s greenest facilities, deliver cleaner air for our children, and help undo a long history of environmental racism in the South Bronx.”

“This federal funding for electric vehicles is exactly what NYC needs to undo the decades of environmental damage and a lack of investment, especially in neighbourhoods like the South Bronx,” said Mayor’s Office of Talent and Workforce Development Executive Director Abby Jo Sigal. “This new investment in EVs will create a cleaner and healthier environment while generating green economy jobs that will advance economic mobility and shared prosperity.”

nyc.gov